Prince George’s County hasn’t made many appearances on this blog thus far, despite being my place of origin. Awhile back, I came across some “Maryland Cooking” recipes printed in The Washington Times in 1921, from “The Melwood Cook Book.” I managed to find a copy and photographed it for archive.org before passing it along to the Maryland Historical Society.
A lot of the names in the book are members of prominent families from the Upper Marlboro area – Duvall, Bowie, Pumphrey. This recipe was attributed to “Mrs. Fred Binger.”
Frederick Binger was the son of Henrietta and John Binger, Germans who moved to Pennsylvania before or around when Frederick was born (1851). Census records throughout his life list Frederick Binger as a farm “laborer.” Frederick’s first marriage ended in tragedy in 1876 when his wife dropped an oil lamp, which exploded and caught her dress on fire. She did not survive the accident.
Frederick and his brother John acquired an estate near Upper Marlboro known as “Mount Clare.” The property had been owned by Richard O. Mullikin, a planter (tobacco, presumably) who “moved in the same social circles as the Claggetts and Bowies, and other wealthy landowners of the Marlboro area.”
In 1896, Fred Binger married a distant relative of Mullikin’s. Rosa Lee Duckett, the daughter of farmer Benjamin Lee Duckett, who was “one of the most highly respected citizens of [Prince George’s County,]” according to the Washington Times.
Rosa is, I believe, the “Mrs. Fred Binger” found in the Melwood Cook Book. In the early 1900s, Rosa took prizes in the state fair for her rolls and sweet pickles. She contributed all kinds of recipes to the Melwood cookbook: cakes, chow-chow, apple butter, and scrapple (remember, Mr. Binger was technically a Pennsylvania German), just to name a few.
I haven’t done anything with rhubarb this year and I love pineapple, so this Pineapple Rhubarb Marmalade seemed like a good choice. Technically it is more of a preserve than a marmalade since there is no citrus peel in it. When it came off the stove, the cooked pineapple taste was dominant. I figured this recipe must have been an economical way to get more mileage out of the pineapple. As it cooled down and sat a few days, the rhubarb tartness came through.
I’ve always been a big fan of Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler but now I can see the appeal of rhubarb preserves. Without committing to finishing an entire cobbler, I can snack on this taste of spring at any time for weeks to come.
Rosa Binger died in 1959. Some Washington Post mentions indicate that some of Fred and Rosa’s descendants still reside in the Upper Marlboro area.
I’ll have to try to make more of the P.G. County recipes from the Melwood Cook Book and Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland. There is a lot of history to learn about, and plenty of recipes to go along with it.
Recipe:
5 Lb rhubarb*
5 Lb sugar
1 pineapple
Cut rhubarb and pineapple fine, add sugar and let it stand over night. Put in preserving kettle and cook until like jelly.
2018 seems to be the year of sweets for Old Line Plate. I haven’t had any complaints yet so I’ll keep going with that. For this simple (and delicious) recipe I reached for my trusty copy of “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland.”
Rose Hill Manor is just the kind of estate that EDBM author Frederick Phillip Stieff loved to rave about. Built in the Greek Revival style in the 1790s by Ann Jennings Johnson and her husband Major John Graeme, Rose Hill Manor is most famous for being the home of Ann’s father Thomas Johnson, who was the first governor of Maryland, from 1777-1779. The elder Johnson had been a friend and supporter of George Washington, had been involved in the planning of Washington D.C., and was a delegate in the Maryland Constitutional Convention. Some of the outbuildings at Rose Hill are still standing, including an icehouse, a smokehouse, and a laundry. In the 1970s, a log-cabin was moved to the property from elsewhere in the Frederick area. The slave-quarters are no longer standing but the Graemes and Johnson had all been slave-owners, and at least 30 people had been enslaved at Rose Hill.
Postcard, Rose Hill Manor Inn
Maryland Historical Trust documents about the property make sure to mention that George Washington did NOT visit Johnson there. Washington had died by the time Johnson moved in with his daughter, or else I am sure he would have visited Rose Hill, since that guy went everywhere.
From 1915 to about 1935, the manor was operating as an inn under the management of “The Misses Reynolds.” “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” was published in 1932, and the five “Rose Hill Manor Inn” recipes included in the book are attributed to the Reynolds: “Brownies,” “Chicken Sago Soup,” “Ginger Pears,” “India Chutney Sauce,” and “Fried Chicken.”
I couldn’t find out very much about these Reynolds sisters. They came from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Lydia Jane (“L. Jane”) was the eldest, born in 1857, Clair was born in 1864. Their niece Agnes Rice was also involved in the operation of the business, as was a black servant named Bessie Ceaser. The census refers to the inn as a “Tea House,” perhaps because that was a common business for women to operate. After their inn-running adventure, the sisters returned to the Scranton area where they lived until the 1940s, Clair passing away in 1941 and L. Jane in 1948.
Rose Hill Manor is now a park and museum with an exhibit on the life of Governor Thomas Johnson, “as well as the history of agriculture and transportation in Frederick County.” They have a lot of programming geared toward children.
These brownies were excellent despite my not having an appropriate pan, and the center staying a little gooey. I used what I had on hand – some 74% baking wafers. I enjoyed them with friends and we wondered about the crusty tops. It turns out that is from the egg-whites and sugar – kind of a type of meringue. Now you know!
Even with the wet center and cutting the brownies like pie, the entire pan got eaten IMMEDIATELY. This leaves room on my kitchen counter for yet more desserts so stay tuned.
Recipes:
2 eggs
1 Cup sugar
.5 Cup flour
.5 Cup melted butter
2 oz chocolate
1 Cup nuts
Beat eggs and sugar together, then beat in flour, mixing well. Melt butter & chocolate & beat into eggs. Stir in nuts. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400°.
Beat eggs and sugar together, then beat in flour, mixing well. Melt butter & chocolate & beat into eggs. Stir in nuts. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400°.
“And so we are really going to have a tea room after all; it is to be a perfect love of a place, all little blue and white China teacups, and walls papered in cunning blue figures, and the name of this delicate place of amusement is going to be the ‘Dutch Tea Room.’ If you have happened to go to Baltimore, or visit Baltimore, or have friends who have, why you know all about the little tea room there that has the same name and has – been run by society girls for the past several years.” – The Times Dispatch, Richmond, VA, 1912
In 1907, Harriet Stanton Blatch met her friend Hettie Wright Graham for dinner. The destination was the famous Hoffman House hotel in New York. The “palace hotel” was known for fine food, expensive artwork, celebrity guests, and rye whiskey. Blatch and Graham took the elevator up to the fashionable rooftop garden dining area but were denied a table. The owner told Blatch that women diners were not allowed without a male escort. The policy was meant to protect women such as Blatch and Graham from having to dine near “objectionable” women. “When I have been annoyed it has been by men,” Blatch remarked. “I do not suppose you make any effort to keep objectionable men out.” She attempted to sue the hotel, and lost.
In the decades after the Civil War, a glamorous new era of restaurant dining was emerging. It wasn’t considered respectable for women to dine without male accompaniment in these places.
Clothing sale in the Dutch Tea Room, 1913
At the same time, women were spending more time outside of the home, whether it was working, shopping, or socializing. In “Ten Restaurants That Changed America”, author Paul Freedman wrote that “the period from 1890 to 1910 saw the proliferation of many types of middle-class restaurants, ranging from those featuring Chinese and other foreign cuisines to tearooms, coffee shops, cafeterias, and other inexpensive but orderly places to have lunch. These were not necessarily intended exclusively for women, but the fact that they did not serve alcohol made them seem appropriate places for unaccompanied women to dine.” (Note: Some accounts claim that it wasn’t always tea in those ladies’ teapots!) These types of establishments offered up “decorous but economical refuge, a midday oasis of sorts, where women who were shopping could dine and recuperate, or where women who worked in offices or stores could have a tranquil if more hurried lunch.”
A 1904 article in The Carlisle Pennsylvania Sentinal advised that opening a tea room was “a profitable occupation for women,” as long as the woman had “a business head and [knew] how to count up profit and loss” as well as experience “making all kinds of cakes in the best homemade way.”
Baltimore was the 6th-largest city in the United States around this time, and had a number of tea rooms. The most famous and enduring is the tea room in the Women’s Exchange. Department stores like Hutzler’s had a tea room inside the store. The Parkway Theater on North Avenue had a tea room which was “swarmed” with people waiting for the second showing of films each day. In segregated Baltimore there was also at least one Black-owned tea room – “The Little Gem” in Sandtown on Robert Street.
In 1914, author Julian Street came to Baltimore and visited the Women’s Exchange where he encountered a “great numbers of ladies sitting upon tall stools and eating at a lunch-counter.” He described the sight as “a somewhat curious spectacle, perhaps, but neither pleasing to the eye nor thrilling to the senses.”
1915 promotional cookbook showing “Dainty” food, Duke University
In the mid-19th century, American society began to develop the stereotype that women preferred different kinds of foods than men. Delmonico steak might be alright for men, but women require something “daintier” – things like cakes, fruit, salads, and egg dishes.
“The development of dining-out options for women was accompanied by a growing sense that women had their own preferences and could, at least in the company of other ladies, indulge them. The obvious advantage of all-female lunches was that women could partake of what they actually liked to eat.” – Ten Restaurants That Changed America
The tea rooms became a place not just for socializing but for politics including suffrage and prohibition. The Southern Tea Room at 206 Park Avenue hosted lectures on women’s suffrage and greeted suffragette Alice Paul with a reception in 1910.
Alice Paul visits the Southern Tea Room, Baltimore Sun, 1910
Marguerite Schertle was a tea room waitress for nearly 80 years. At age 92 she was profiled in “Maryland’s Vanishing Lives” where she shared the memories of tea room culture, where the customers were known by name as “Miss this and Miss that,” desserts like butterscotch and charlotte russe were still served, and where oftentimes sisters were employed side by side. Her own sister “Miss Anna” had worked with her at the Women’s Exchange until her death in 1992. The women had even married “look-alike” brothers and started families in adjacent bungalows in Hamilton. Schertle passed away in 2001 at 100 years old.
Before her half-century-long tenure at the Women’s Exchange, Schertle had worked for 20 years across the street at the Dutch Tea Room at 314 N. Charles.
The Dutch Tea Room had been opened in 1904 by Natalie Cole, who was, according to the Baltimore Sun, a “lady of social standing.” The popular tea room was even visited by President Wilson – almost. In 1913 he stopped by with his family but the place was too crowded so they went to the Rennert instead. Cole still got to serve her country in 1917, when the tea room baked 300 “extra fine” fruit cakes for soldiers at Camp Meade.
In 1918 Natalie Cole married William Wilson Galbreath, who is listed in some directories as a salesman of “porcelain products.” Hmm. Cole and her husband passed away in 1959 and 1952, respectively. I’m not sure when the Dutch Tea Room actually closed for business.
An October 1904 Baltimore Sun article claimed the great fire in February brought enterprising women to open lunch rooms
According to the Baltimore Sun obituary for Marguerite Schertle, when she’d worked at the Dutch Tea Room she had baked “Lady Baltimore, orange and Wellesley fudge cakes.”
I don’t have recipes for those cakes but I found a recipe in an undated, unpublished manuscript for a “Martha Washington Cake,” attributed to the Dutch Tea Room. The cake is actually a predecessor to Boston Creme Pie, with a custard filling and minus the chocolate topping. Although Boston Creme Pie has been sometimes called “Washington Pie” (or Cake), the Martha name is rarer – it’s typically known as a “Martha Washington Cream Pie.” The name is obviously more dainty and befitting a tea room.
Early 20th century menus suggest that both a cup of tea and a slice of cake would run about fifteen cents – $1.92 in today’s money. At that price, I could go for a tea room lunch. Myself and most dainty ladies would be quick to notice that it leaves more money and appetite for a burger and a beer for dinner. Male accompaniment optional, thanks.
Recipe:
Cake:
½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
3 eggs
Beat yolks then add the sugar. Fold in stiffly beaten whites, then gently fold in flour, stirring as little as possible. Bake in one cake tin. (A smaller taller cake might be preferable to the 9″ tin I used.)
Filling:
1 cup milk
1 egg
½ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
vanilla to taste
Scald the milk. Beat flour, sugar and egg in a separate bowl then mix in ¼ to ½ cup of the scalded milk. Return to pan and cook over medium heat until thickened. Cool thoroughly.
Split the cake vertically and spread filling in the middle. Top with powdered sugar.
According to Wikipedia, the word for punch comes from the sanskrit word for “five.” The drink was once made up of five components: water, citrus, alcohol, sugar, and “spice”. According to punch historian David Wondrich, the spice in question could be anything from “nutmeg or tea to ambergris.” (Hey that rhymes!)
The flavors of this traditional punch became a favorite of sailors and traders of the East India Company in the early 1600s. In 1655, the English captured Jamaica from the Spanish. Jamaican Rum became the next spoil of colonialism to make its way into punch.
Bomberger got the recipe from Otho Holland Williams Hunter, the great-great nephew of Otho Holland Williams.
Williams had served in the Continental Army during the Revolution, in command of the 6th Maryland Regiment of the “Maryland Line” from which our state nickname derives. After the war, he lived in a large estate in Williamsport (“Williams’ Port”), Springfield Farm.
The Springfield Farm property contained several outbuildings, including a spring house said to be built by Thomas Cresap, and a ‘still house’ where rye whiskey was aged. According to “Williamsport,” by Mary H. Rubin, that rye was a major source of income for the county.
Williams made efforts to convince his friend George Washington to locate the capital of our young nation in Williamsport, Maryland – and Washington strongly considered it. Washington was championing a canal to connect the Chesapeake Bay and Ohio Rivers, to better commence trade along the Potomac River through the mountains. It wasn’t until 1835 that the C & O Canal that Washington had envisioned made its way to Williamsport, and town became the second-largest town in Washington County.
Otho Holland Williams died in 1794, leaving the Springfield Farm estate to his brother before it then passed on to Otho’s own son Edward Greene Williams around 1810. Edward was the party guy so I like to think this punch is associated with him. He was known for his lavish entertainment at Springfield Farm, and frequently hosted the well-to-do from Washington. Betsy Patterson Bonaparte is said to have made a visit. MAYBE SHE DRANK THIS PUNCH.
At any rate, the recipe came into the hands of Otho Holland Williams Hunter. For all we know, he got it from one of his coworkers at C & P Telephone. Maybe he got it from his wife, Bettie Barber Bruin Hunter, daughter of a banker who raised money to preserve the Washington Monument. No, not that one…. Not that one either. The Washington Monument of Boonesboro – the first *completed* Washington Monument.
Whatever its origin, this is a punch fit for the holidays. I wasn’t aware of the rye made at the still house until after I had already made the recipe and so I had used Irish Whiskey, which is commonly called for in tea punch recipes. I also cut the sugar in half because… yikes. Many recipes call for crushed ice but since this one specified an ice block I took the opportunity to make this molded ice block that came out looking like some kind of shrimp aspic. Fashionable Betsy Patterson Bonaparte would not be impressed.
Recipe:
3 Pints whiskey
1 Pint rum
1 teacup green tea
24 lemons
4 Lbs sugar
2 Quarts water
oranges, pineapples, maraschino cherries, Curaçao
Three pints of whisky, 1 pint of rum, 1 large tea cupful of green tea, 2 dozen lemons, 4 pounds sugar, 2 quarts of boiling water. Pour water on tea and let it steep for a short time. Squeeze lemons over the sugar. Peel very thinly 18 lemons and pour the boiling hot tea over the peels. Let it stand 5 minutes, then strain and pour tea over sugar and lemon juice. When sugar is entirely dissolved add whisky and rum and strain again. When ready to use add oranges, pineapples (cut in dice shape), Maraschino cherries, or any other fruit you may like. Some persons like curocoa in it also. Put this punch mixture in the punch bowl with a large lump of ice. This quantity will serve twenty-five people.
According to Jacques Kelly, “Hochschild’s sold what you needed, not what you aspired to get.” In 1997, the Baltimore Sun columnist reminisced about the bargain basement at Hochschild Kohn’s, with its creaking wooden floors, in-store post office, and shelves of “pots, pans, cabinets full of embroidery thread, inexpensive tablecloths, phonograph records and scissors displays.”
Hochschild Kohn’s may not have had the high-fashion and prestige of Hutzler’s, but shoppers needed lamps, typewriters, pet supplies and fountain pens too. According to department store historian Michael J. Lisicky, “with a very strong line of basic merchandise, Hochschild’s was seen as ‘the people’s store’.” Hutzler’s had all the glamour, but Hochschild’s was a necessary mainstay.
Advertisement, Der Deutsche Correspondent, 1912
Hochschild Kohn’s was the outgrowth of a South Charles Street clothing store founded by the Kohn family in 1862. In 1897, brothers Louis & Benno Kohn pooled resources with friend Max Hochschild to open a “palace” at Howard and Lexington. The store was infamously cramped and confusing, with ad-hoc expansions built as the business empire grew. In 1923, the company announced plans to finally build a bigger space on a city block bounded by Howard, Franklin, Park, and Center Streets. As it was being built, Hochschild sold his stake in the store to retire, although he did maintain an office where he would “sit around and loaf” for many years until passing away at age 101 in 1957. Financial difficulties prevented the larger property from ever being fully completed as planned.
By 1945, the leadership of Hochschild Kohn’s consisted of Treasurer/V.P. Louis B. Kohn II, president Martin B. Kohn, and his wife Rosa. Rosa had been an editor for the New York Times Sunday magazine, and according to the family, her publicity acumen deserves credit for much of the department store’s success and growth during this era. In the 1950s, Hochschild Kohn’s expanded into the growing suburbs to reach markets in such as Anne Arundel County.
It was the wife Louis B. Kohn, II who contributed this cookie recipe to the Park School Cookbook. Born Frances Josephine Levy in 1916, she married Louis B. Kohn II (grandson of store founder Louis B. Kohn) in 1940. She charitably contributed to many organizations around Baltimore including Goucher College, Baltimore Clayworks, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Planned Parenthood. She passed away in 2012.
In the cookbook, the cookies are entitled “Kohn Cookies.” I am not sure whether that is referring to the family or to something served at the store. Certainly, Hochschild Kohn’s leaves a legacy of recipes behind, having produced at least one “Salad and Dessert Cook Book,” in 1933. That book was actually written by cookbook author Mabel Claire, and released as a promotional item for different stores, including Macy’s. These cookies do not appear in the Macy’s version of the recipe book, at any rate.
It bears infinite repetition that nostalgia for the glamorous era of downtown department stores deserves careful reconsideration. As stated in Baltimore Style Magazine: “in 1960, Hochschild’s served 120 Morgan State student demonstrators in the downtown store restaurant, becoming the first of Baltimore’s department stores to integrate and eventually change their strict policies of not allowing African-Americans to either try on or return clothing.“
Afro-American, 1945
The chain went out of business in 1983, just a few years before its rival, Hutzler’s threw in the towel. The store downtown on Lexington & Howard had been abandoned in 1977.
According to Baltimore Style, what many Baltimorean’s remember most about Hochschild Kohn’s was their Thanksgiving parade which made it’s way from the BMA to downtown each year from 1933 to 1966, signaling the start of Christmas Shopping season with a “jovial to some, terrifying to others” mechanized Santa Claus.
Christmastime advertisements boasted “dolls that look like real live children,” ostrich-plumed hats, Parisian ivory toilet accessories, aprons & caps “for the maid,” turkey roasters, and inexpensive fabric, ideal for men’s shirts or modern “women’s mannish waists.” The advertisements promised that “the delicious food, the dainty surroundings and the quiet restfulness” of their sixth floor Tea Room would “send you to your afternoon shopping refreshed and invigorated.”
Recipe:
4 eggs
.5 Lb grated bitter chocolate
1.5 Cup brown sugar
1.5 Cup sugar
1 Cup flour
Beat sugar and eggs together. Add chocolate and beat well again. Add flour gradually. Drop from teaspoons to well-buttered cookie sheet (they spread quite a lot). Bake in 350° oven for 9 minutes for crisp cookies. 6 minutes for chewy cookies. This makes 100 cookies.
